Price of stainless?

D

DB731

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Feb 10, 2013
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What is the trend when it comes of price of stainless steel? By stainless I mean 303, 304, and 316, btw. Does it correlate with steel prices in general?

Also, are there practical sources for scrap stainless that are available to the general public?
 
Don't try and save a few cents by using scrap. It gives poor results, just buy known flat stock. It won't be a lot more expensive per knife
 
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It's 3-5x more expensive than mild steel, but it's almost half price of what it was just 2-3 years ago. I recently paid just under $500 for a 12' stick of 1/2"×6" 304 tru-bar. 3 years ago that material would have cost me over 8 bills.
Depending on the sizes and ammounts you're looking for a scrapyard could be your best bet.
 
Hengelo_77 said:
Don't try and save a few cents by using scrap. It gives poor results, just buy known flat stock. It won't be a lot more expensive per knife
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Not to mention how hard 304/316 is on twist drills, end mills, files, and abrasives. Unless you NEED 300 series stainless for a specific reason, it’s much more economical to buy new 400 series steel.
 
tim37a said:
What are you using 303, 304, and 316 for?
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For homemade fishing lures, like this fella: https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=29069.0

This place appears to have the best prices in my area: https://www.coremarkmetals.com/
..especially if I buy from the surplus section, as it comes out slightly cheaper by the pound and avoids the cutting fee. They typically have 3 or 4 foot round bars for my purpose. After procrastinating (and making other types of lures) I recently started working with 1/2" 303 round bar, and it's a lot easier than I thought (was afraid) it would be. With a cheap hacksaw my forearms feel like Popeye's fairly quickly...

The only thing is, with the surplus section you don't know if you are getting 303, 304, or 316. Most likely 304, I would guess.

by the way, in 2016 I believe I paid 5 bucks for a 303 24" 1/2" round bar, and now that same place (different supplier from the one mentioned above) wanted 15+ bucks..another one, since it was "special order" wanted 45 bucks. What the hell...

Ideally, I would like to go the cheap bastard route, but anything in the free craigslist section is either massive refrigerators, microwaves, etc, with sheet or plate stainless...
 
For lure stick to 300 series SS. I’ve been making lures out of it for close to 40 years. Buffs to a mirror and using scrap rod or plate is just fine.
 
Willie71 said:
how do you know it’s 304 unless you have it analyzed?
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In most case it is written all over it...304.....304........or 304L.....304L.........
BTW , why should I need to exactly know what stainless it is ? It is enough that I know it is stainless and wont rust .We don t HT it....
 
Commercial-grade SS (303, 304, 316 etc) prices are tied to global nickel prices. If one is curious about stainless steel price trends, one need only google "stainless steel price trends".

Yes, there are surplus yards that sell scrap stainless.
 
If you know of any contractors that do remodeling you can ask them if the come a crossed any stainless steel sinks that they're either tossing or scrapping. You could probably get something like that for a song.
 
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